


And she ne'er looked home again

by LeaperSonata



Category: Wendy Trilogy - S. J. Tucker (Song Cycle)
Genre: F/F, Gen, Misses Clause Challenge, Pirates, Pre-Femslash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-22
Updated: 2014-12-22
Packaged: 2018-03-02 18:22:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2821787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeaperSonata/pseuds/LeaperSonata
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She proudly followed Wendy, and she ne'er went home again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And she ne'er looked home again

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Eirenne Saijima (ladypoetess)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladypoetess/gifts).



> Prompt: From the song cycle, we know that Sue and Jill are shipmates and sisters, but what about their personal relationship? How do they get along? Are they best friends who will stay up through the night giggling and talking? Or are they competitive with each other? Sue doesn’t want to go back when Jill decides to leave Neverland - does that create tension between them, with Jill knowing how Sue will stay with Peter and Tink, or does Jill gracefully surrender her position?
> 
> I hope you enjoy it! I have discovered I like writing fic for this canon :)

Sue followed Peter Pan and Tinker Bell through the sky - _second star to the right and straight on till morning_ \- and when the dawn came, she could see below her islands that had no place on any globe or atlas she had ever seen. One island had on one end a spreading tree of impossible size, while the other end was populated by a village of stoutly built longhouses. Between the two was a cove cut into the side of the island, with the clearest bluest water and whitest sand that Sue had ever seen. _That must be where the mermaids live_. A ways to the left of that island was another, somewhat larger one, with a large town around a harbor and farms and scattered cottages dotting the rest of the island. _Who lives there? Pirates?_

In front of her, Peter Pan dipped suddenly, diving down towards a ship anchored in the ocean between the two islands. Sue followed him, her heart in her throat. _This must be the pirate ship he spoke of, with a girl captain looking for girls on her crew. What will she be like? She can't hate tomboys like everyone at home, can she? Will she like me?_

_...Will I like her?_

But Sue has little time for nerves, because in a moment the ship loomed before them, no longer a tiny speck in the distance, and she could see members of the crew, coarse, scarred pirates, working the decks. Peter Pan flew ahead to what must be the door of the captain's quarters, and Sue hung back by the rail, unsure.

Peter banged cheerfully on the door, which was opened by a smiling girl in breeches with a brightly patterned tattered skirt over them and a close-fitting blouse. Her hair was braided tightly back with bright ribbons in blue and green and purple showing in it, and crowning it all was a tri-cornered hat with an enormous, brilliantly red feather plume. _This must be Wendy._ Peter Pan spoke to her, just far enough away that he was out of Sue's hearing, and the girl answered something equally indistinct.

Then she looked over at Sue floating behind the rail of the deck and beckoned. "Come here!" she called. "Don't worry. I only bite people who deserve it." She winked broadly. Sue realized that the captain's turn to face her had revealed a sword hanging from her side - even in her own quarters, it seemed, she went armed.

Gathering up the brash courage that the world had tried to squeeze out of her, Sue flew over the rail and across the deck of the ship to alight in front of the girl. She smiled at Sue. "Hello. I'm the captain, Red-Handed Jill." _I wonder why Peter Pan called her Wendy?_ "What would you like to be called?"

 _Anything but Suzy Rotten._ Sue thought for a moment, then smiled. "You can call me Green-Eyed Sue."

Red-Handed Jill grinned and extended a hand for the newly christened Green-Eyed Sue to clasp. "Welcome to my crew, Green-Eyed Sue. I'm so very glad to meet you."

 

Within a day of arriving on the ship, Sue was enchanted. The pirates glared a bit, and they muttered when Smee resigned in her favor - this girl, who had only just set foot on a pirate ship for the first time, was to stand above them? - but she hardly cared. The first thing she did on the ship was to ask Red-Handed Jill for more suitable clothing, and the captain brought her to her own private cabin and showed Sue a trunk full of an enormous pile of clothes in a vast variety of colors and patterns and styles and sizes. Red-Handed Jill smiled at Sue's round eyes, told her that she could pick whatever she liked, and left her alone to change.

Sue unceremoniously stripped off her nightgown as soon as the door was closed and latched and discarded it on the floor in an untidy heap. _Probably best to keep the bloomers,_ she mused. She turned her attention to the chest of clothing. It was probably silly to have undressed before she found anything to change into, but she didn't care. She was sick of anything with skirts. For the first time in her life she had the freedom to wear anything she liked, and by the fairy dust that brought her here she was going to take the fullest possible advantage of it.

After a pleasant interlude rummaging through the chest and sorting out things she liked the look of, then trying them all on to see which ones fit, Sue had successfully compiled three outfits, one to be worn immediately, and two alternates. She hoped the captain would let her keep them all so she'd have something to change into sometimes, but in case she didn't, Sue had put on the things she liked best.

The close-fitting forest green breeches had laces over the hips for a snug fit, and a loose shirt in an undyed cream cotton was topped by a bright purple blouse made along similar lines to the captain's, laced tight to hold the loose shirt out of the way and minimize her bust. She didn't want to be dressed any differently from the pirates, to be looked at like a girl - but it couldn't hurt to wear colors. Some of them were, bright reds and blues and other shades throughout the rainbow. As she turned towards the door, a glint of light caught Sue's eye. A second look revealed a small silvered mirror in a padded velvet case, and next to it a pair of scissors and a dagger in an embroidered sheath.

Sue smiled, and in moments, her long blonde hair was unbound and falling to the floor in uneven hanks. When she inspected herself in the mirror, her hair was a mess of sharp lines of ends at different angles, but it was short. Her neck felt odd from the exposure and sudden loss of weight. She shook her head sharply, and her hair settled into place, into a rough short mess that she found she rather liked the look of. She had been planning to ask Red-Handed Jill if she would mind giving her a hand neatening it up a little - if she could summon up the nerve, anyway - but she decided she didn't want to after all.

Sue liked the face in the mirror. That girl looked like she knew what she was doing. Like maybe she could be a pirate, and a tomboy, and open every door that's ever been slammed in Sue's face.

Sue grinned at her reflection, and she wasn't as fey and wild as Peter Pan yet, but her eyes were a little bit feral.

 

"Turn, and _thrust_!" Sue swung her sword in patterns she was beginning to learn, panting with exertion. Jill eyed her trembling swordpoint critically and grinned. "Time for a break." She dropped unceremoniously onto a pile of rope, gesturing for Sue to join her. Sue gratefully sheathed her sword and sat down next to Jill, carefully making sure they were far enough apart that their arms didn't brush against each other. _I don't want to be... weird. It's enough to be here, to not have to grow up and grow out my hair and grow resigned to marrying a man I could never love._

Blasting straight through Sue's careful walls, as usual, Jill turned to her and caught up her hands in her own. _At least my breathing is already rough from the swordfighting practice_ , Sue thought helplessly. _She won't notice it catching. I hope._

"Are you enjoying it here? I'm ever so glad to have another girl here at last, but I couldn't bear it if you wished you were back home and were stuck here." Jill stared earnestly into Sue's eyes. "If you ever want to leave, I'll get Peter and Tink over in a trice to take you back."

Sue focused on her words, rather than the pressure of her fingers against Sue's skin, and dredged up a response. "I certainly don't want to leave! I love fighting. This is everything I got in trouble for doing at home, and I'm more than allowed, I'm encouraged." She smiled at Jill, hoping it looked like a normal expression and definitely not in any way besotted. "And I'm lucky enough to serve under such a caring captain, who worries about the welfare of her sailors over the preservation of her crew."

Jill laughed. "A selfish impulse on my part, I assure you! I've no wish for reluctant fighters on my crew - or for sailors who could be friends who resent me instead." She smiled at Sue and squeezed her hands. "I do hope we are friends, Sue, or at least that we can be. It was terribly lonely being the only girl among pirates all grown men, even now that they look to me as captain."

 _I would walk the plank for you with no fairy dust to buoy my fall_ , Sue thought, dizzied. _I rather fear you already have my heart. How could you not have my friendship as well?_ "Of course, captain. I- I would be proud to call you friend."

"Then do call me Jill." Jill beamed at her. "Friends must after all be on familiar terms, don't you think?"

"Of course - Jill," Sue managed, wondering how she was still able to speak with her heart in her mouth.

 

"Looking at the stars?"

Sue started at the sound of a voice behind her and turned to find Jill standing behind her in the dark. "Yes. They're so different from the ones at home. I keep automatically looking for the constellations I learned from my brothers' books, but they're not there."

Jill nodded. "It was looking at the sky that I felt the most lost at Peter's house. So far away from home that it's not even under the same sky."

Sue smiled and held out her hand, revealing the compass she was holding. "I'm watching how they move, and trying to memorize which ones point where, so I can see my way by them if I need to. I could at home, and I miss it. If I don't know where I am, I at least want to know which way is North."

"That's a good notion," Jill said. "I asked the pirates to teach me how they navigated, when I first got here, and they all said only the Captain knew. And Hook wouldn't teach me. He tried to have me killed, but we beat him out, Peter and I." She grinned at the memory, fierce and feral.

Sue stared at Jill's smile and her heart skipped a beat. "Perhaps we can figure it out for ourselves, together." She swallowed. "My brothers' books about the stars were full of the stories of the constellations. Maybe we can write our own across this sky."

Jill grinned wider and caught Sue's hands up to whirl her around, though she was careful to hold the precious compass firmly between them. "That's a wonderful idea. I'm sure we can find even better pictures in the stars than the ones at home. And we'll learn which ones point north all on our own. I couldn't do it when I was just on the crew, without the compass, but now we can. I'm afraid since I became captain I've just been relying on the compass."

 

**Author's Note:**

> Beta'd by tigerbright, who caught a whole lot of tense errors, and if any remain, they're all on me.


End file.
